COP23 Carnival

November 14, 2017

by Pat Carlson, Eagle Forum Environmental Chairman

The United Nations convened its latest international global warming conference COP23 in Bonn, Germany this week which is coincidentally happening at the same time Germany has begun its Carnival, also known as “Fifth Season” or “Fasching.” The similarities between the two events are striking. The opening day of the Carnival allows people, mostly young people, to come together in masquerade and engage in limitless alcohol consumption and noise making which creates an unsustainable reality.

COP23 allows people, mostly young people, from every country to come together masqueraded as the voice of the world and engage in limitless dialogue creating agreements that, if implemented, would create an unsustainable reality.

COP23 is being held in Germany but the conference president, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, is from Fiji. Usually, the COP President is from the host country (in this case, Germany). Fiji is too small to accommodate the 19,000 persons attending, so it is being given the fake status of the host country. These UN conferences try to elevate the smallest countries — which have contributed nothing to improve the lives of humanity — with a voice equal to the countries which have contributed the most to humanity. Delegates from these small countries are given these leadership positions under the guise of being the “victims” of western countries who have perpetrated the “crime” of energy over-consumption, which allegedly is causing climate change. The “victim voices” of these small countries can be heard loud and clear from the international platform of the U.N.

The countries sending the most delegates to COP23 are from three small countries in Africa. The top contender is Cote d’Ivoire (a small country on the Ivory Coast) sending 492 delegates, second is Guinea at 355, and third is the Democratic Republic of Congo at 340. The U.S. sent a delegation of 48. Of course, the U.N. pays for these developing country delegations.

COP23 has nothing to do with climate. Climate change is just a smoke screen to redistribute wealth from us to them (rich to poor) with the intended result of lowering our lifestyle. COP23 discussions around the 32 page Paris Agreement, reached in 2015 at COP21 by 194 countries, can be narrowed down to just two groups and one topic – developing countries wanting to know when the developed countries are going to give them the money and technology they think they are owed. The caveat is this transfer of wealth and technology, which is already happening, does nothing to benefit poor countries. It only enriches the U.N., large corporations, and corrupt governments. Plus, it is stifling the economies and energy production of western countries, which will result in major “transformational” lifestyle changes.

The United Nations Frame Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, is very clear when she says, “we need to get from international agreements to deep and complete transformation of societies” and “climate change action is central to achieve this deep transformation.”

Even though President Trump says the U.S. is pulling out of the Paris Agreement, there is a delegation at COP23. President Trump should pull out of the Agreement now because it is a treaty and it has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, the agreement is being treated as though former President Obama’s signature was legally binding and the U.S. withdrawal has been postponed until 2020.

Five U.S. Senators are attending COP23 to try to undermine the U.S. delegation – Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). At their press conference, they were very disrespectful of President Trump and made alarming and false statements.

Sen. Whitehouse said that in the Trump-led executive branch there “are people who are legally bound to continue this program (Paris Agreement) and we are going to defend that.”

Sen. Markey was the worst saying “We are here to tell the world that we are with them – that the American people are with them and that Donald Trump is nothing more than a temporary occupant of the White House. COP stands for climate outlasts presidents.”

Former President Obama and Hillary Clinton made a pledge of $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and $1 billion has already been given. President Trump wisely stopped the flow of U.S. dollars to the GCF, but the U.S. is still contributing to the UNFCCC in other ways. Sen. Merkley made that very clear saying “we are funding overseas private investment corporations, loan guarantees – loans to fund…green energy, sustainability, adaptation, mitigation, sustainability and International Development Banks.” There will never be enough money to satisfy the greedy U.N. bureaucrats.

President Trump needs to completely walk away from this bad agreement, and Congress needs to stop funding the U.N. Lifestyles in the U.S. do not cause climate change. The U.S. does not owe developing countries anything. This Carnival is based on a deceptive and false reality that is not sustainable.